


When Needs Must

by RocknVaughn



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Episode Fix-it, F/M, Season/Series 02 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9178987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RocknVaughn/pseuds/RocknVaughn
Summary: Canon AU for Episode 2x08.Mattie can't shake the feeling that something is going to go terribly wrong with Leo's attempt to rescue Laura from Hester. Despite Leo's wish for Mattie to stay behind, she convinces Max they need to follow Leo and Mia to the Hawkins house.The title of the story comes from the middle English idiom, "Needs must when the devil drives," which means that sometimes events compel you to do something you would much rather not.





	

*****

“Mia, you can’t be anywhere near him when he uses it,” Mattie warned about the deadly frequency now stored on Leo’s mobile. The synth stopped in her tracks, her head turned slightly toward Mattie in a sign that she was listening. “If you’re within range, then your chip activates, too.”

Mia made no reply. Instead, she continued walking down the aisle of the train car, following Leo; protecting him.

Mattie leaned against the window, watching as mother and son ran side by side down the middle of the disused track, growing smaller and smaller until the path curved out of view.

She tried to ignore the ever-growing knot in the pit of her stomach, but she couldn’t. In fact, Mattie’s heart began to race and her chest felt inexplicably tight.

“He’ll be all right,” Max soothed, his thumb moving in a circular motion across Mattie’s shoulder.

“No,” Mattie responded, going stock still at the cold wave of certainty she could neither explain nor deny. “He won’t.” Her frightened eyes met Max’s startled ones as she asked him, “Do you know how to hot-wire a car?”

“Yes,” Max admitted, “but…”

She stood up suddenly, causing Max to step back as she hastily shoved her laptop back into her pack. “We need to go.”

“Mattie, you heard what Leo said…” Max began, but Mattie cut him off.

“Yes, I did. It was what was _between_ the lines that worries me.” She put her hand on Max’s forearm beseechingly. “You said he blames himself: for what happened to the other synths, for Hester going rogue, for my Mum, all of it. Something’s going to go wrong. I can feel it.”

Worry formed parallel lines across Max’s forehead as he considered what Mattie said.

 “And Mia…I don’t know what happened to her when she showed up at my parents’ house as Anita. But whatever it was, it’s changed her. She’s much more decisive and bold than she used to be, but also more reckless. When I left them, she was just as intent about breaking into Qualia as Leo was. She would have warned him off it before.”

 “Yes, she would have.”

 “So,” Mattie said, shrugging into her camouflage jacket and lifting her backpack onto one shoulder, “Leo will go charging in doing something monumentally stupid to save my Mum and Mia will go in after him. But who is going to save _them_ when it all goes pear-shaped?”

“We are,” Max said with a decisive nod. “You’re right, Mattie. Neither one of them are thinking clearly after what happened at the Silo. And with a synth as dangerous as Hester, it can only end badly.”

He turned on his heel and approached Flash at the other end of the train car. She reminded Mattie a bit of Max when they’d first met months before. She wondered how long it would be before the wiser-but-more-world-weary look that Max now wore would dilute Flash’s childlike innocence.

“I am going to be accompanying Mattie back to her home this afternoon,” Max informed her kindly, gently holding her hands between his own larger ones. “I shall return shortly. Please care for the other synths and stay safe while I am gone.”

“Yes, Max,” Flash responded with a sunny smile. “Pleasant journey to you both.” She nodded in Mattie’s direction.

“Thank you,” Mattie responded, and then signalled Max with a quirk of her eyebrow and nodded urgently at the door beside her. She stepped outside onto the top step, shielding her eyes from the bright mid-afternoon sun as Max did the same from the door at the other end of the car.

Max caught up with Mattie before she’d even reached the ground. “We’ll need to hurry if we’re going to get to your home in time.”

“What did you have in mind?” Mattie panted, as she jogged along beside Max in order to keep up with his long, quick strides.

“If I know Leo, he’ll insist on driving. Therefore, if I drive, we can get there faster, make up for lost time.”

“Why’s that?”Mattie looked at Max quizzically.

“Because while Leo has a synthetic brain, he still has human reflexes. I do not.”

“Oh.”

Max smiled down at her and teased, “Although you might not want to watch.”

*****

As Max parked their purloined vehicle on the block behind the Hawkins house, Mattie placed a hand over her racing heart and heaved a sigh of relief. She swore that the trip had shaved 10 years off her life and if she never rode in a car with Max driving again, it would be too soon.

“Well, that was frankly terrifying,” Mattie drawled in her usual sarcastic tone, which drew an amused chuckle from her synthetic companion.

“I did tell you not to look,” Max reminded her as he unbuckled his safety belt.

“Yeah, ‘cause that was possible when I needed to brace for impact every three seconds…”

“You were perfectly safe,” Max insisted. “I would never put you in harm’s way. But if I’d gone any slower, we would not currently be four minutes early.”

Mattie opened the car door and then reached into the backseat to retrieve her backpack with a wry smile. “I know.”

Max was by her elbow by the time she’d shut the door behind her. Together, they crossed the street and crept down the drive of the house behind Mattie’s.

“How do you want to do this?” Max whispered in Mattie’s ear as they crouched beside the hedge that separated the Hawkins’ property from their neighbours. “Unfortunately, I don’t know the layout of this home.”

“We can’t go through the yard because the windows of the living room overlook it. We’d be too easily spotted,” Mattie explained. “But we should be able to access the kitchen door if we come in through the car park. Come on.”

With a stealth borne from years of practice, Mattie deftly slid through a gap in the hedge very near the car park entrance door. How Max had fit himself through such a small opening without any rustling of branches, she had no idea, but his presence behind her proved that he did. Mattie was just reaching for the door handle when they heard the rhythmic slapping of Leo’s boots against the cobblestones of the drive.

“Hester?” they heard Leo call, and then his footfalls changed as he crossed the threshold into the house.

Max and Mattie stared at each other wide-eyed. Leo was supposed to get close to the house and set off the signal. Confronting Hester had not been part of the plan. “Dammit, Leo…” Max breathed, and reached over Mattie’s shoulder to silently open the door.

Leo’s voice was muffled, but still audible through the closed door of the kitchen. “Hester, put that down.”

“Shit!” Mattie breathed as she and Max tiptoed across the concrete of the empty garage.

“It’ll be all right,” Max soothed, doing little more than mouthing the words. “Leo will protect her.” He sidled up to the edge of the doorjamb and peeked through the gap in the window curtain. Max turned back and nodded at Mattie, his hand turning the knob and pushing the door open a millimetre at a time.

The naked concern in Leo’s voice as he asked her mother, “Laura, are you okay?” made Mattie’s eyes burn with unshed tears. She blinked them back and forced her emotions aside. Right now, it was imperative that she maintain focus. She could do nothing to give Max or herself away. Her mother’s life depended on it.

When the gap between door and jamb was wide enough, Max leant around the edge of the door, low to the floor to avoid detection. He shook his head and then jerked it once in a signal that Mattie should follow.

“So…what are we doing here?” Leo asked, his voice louder and clearer to Mattie now that she and Max were inside.

“I want to hear you acknowledge the cost of your _weakness_.” Hester’s voice was as bitter as Mattie had ever heard it.

“Weakness?” Leo repeated in surprise.

“If you had let me do what needed to be done,” Hester spit out, “If you had helped me…we could have killed them all, deactivated their security, and those synths would still be alive.”

There was nothing but stunned silence in the wake of Hester’s accusations. Mattie could only imagine the pain they had caused Leo, who already believed the death of the synths were his fault.

 _Say something, Leo,_ Mattie begged him in her head. _Say anything to get Hester to back down…please!_

“This woman’s death…will be on your hands, too.”

At this, Max turned his back to the living room and enveloped Mattie in his arms, blocking any chance she might have had to intervene in or witness the next few moments. Even though she wanted to struggle, wanted to fight, she didn’t because Mattie knew Max was protecting her.

Laura’s gasped, “Don’t!” was overshadowed by Leo’s panicked voice layered over it.

“I let you down, Hester. You needed more from me and I was all you had. I’m sorry.”

Hester sounded almost bewildered by Leo’s confession. “You’re telling the truth.”

Max looked down at Mattie as she looked up and he opened his arms to free her. Together, they crept closer to the living room, and finally, _finally_ , they could just make out Laura sitting in a chair facing away from the patio, Hester at her back holding a screwdriver to the side of her neck.

“I failed you,” Leo admitted. “The anger in me found the anger in you, and I should have stopped it; I should have realised… But if you come with me, I promise you that I will spend the rest of my life making this right. You’ll have to pay for the things you’ve done, but so will I and we’ll do it together. Am I still telling the truth?”

“Yes.” Hester’s voice was softer now, less angry. “But you’re a human…”

“Not completely, remember?” Leo reminded her. “I have _always_ felt like one of you.”

The silence, save for Laura’s shallow breaths, stretched on for what seemed like an eternity to Mattie. But then, Hester slowly lowered the hand holding the screwdriver back to her side.

After another moment, Hester stepped away from Laura entirely, crossing the room to where Leo must be. Mattie edged forward a tiny bit, wanting to keep that psychopath in her line of sight. Especially after what happened at the Silo, she didn’t trust Hester to be anywhere _near_ Leo.

Laura’s eyes darted in Mattie’s direction and grew wide and round with terror, but her naked fear subsided when Max sidled into view. Mattie put a silencing finger to her lips and then slid her mobile out of her pocket, activation code at the ready.

Mattie’s stomach turned painfully when she saw Hester in Leo’s arms, one wide palm splayed across her back as he held her to him. Yet, as intimate as the gesture seemed, the look on his face as he stared at Laura across the living room was inscrutable.

It was almost as if he were handling a ticking time bomb.

“I’ve always wondered,” Hester crooned in an almost playful tone that made Mattie’s skin crawl. “Where is it, this synthetic part?”

All sorts of alarm bells were going off in Mattie’s head. From everything she’d seen and heard about Hester, she did not forgive easily…or at all. And now she was asking Leo to reveal his own Kryptonite? That could _not_ be good.

 _Don’t do it, Leo,_ Mattie begged him silently, even as she saw him begin to lift Hester’s hand to lay it across the back of his skull. _No, no, no, no, no!_

“Here,” Leo murmured, nuzzling his nose against Hester’s.

Mattie didn’t know what the hell Leo was playing at. Was he honestly falling for Hester’s sweet-and-forgiving act, or was he just trying make her _think_ he was? Either way, it was a very risky and dangerous game for a human to play with a synth and someone was bound to end up hurt.

Namely, Leo.

“I can feel it!” Hester exclaimed softly as her fingers caressed the skin over the spot at the base of Leo’s neck. Three of her fingernails were still bloody from where she’d scratched Laura’s forehead.

Mattie’s stomach churned and her palms began to sweat.

Hester tilted her forehead against Leo’s in a profane mimicry of the Elster family’s unique sign of affection. “Do you love me, Leo?” she asked, her lips a hairbreadth away from his.

“Yes, I do.”

Mattie’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in terror, but not for the reason one might think.

 _Leo had lied._ She’d witnessed the tiny but telltale hesitation; the way his eyes slid away from Hester’s face and back before he’d answered. And if Mattie, a mere human, could read Leo’s body language and see the falsehood, then Hester sure as hell would.

Yet, inexplicably, she didn’t. Instead, Hester smiled and stepped back into Leo’s arms. The grimace of naked relief on his face at Hester’s reaction did nothing to allay Mattie’s fears.

And for good reason. Mattie’s eyes were drawn to the movement of Hester’s right hand as she effortlessly twirled the handle of the screwdriver in her palm so that it faced the opposite direction.

A cold chill rose gooseflesh on Mattie’s arms. Leo was trying to redeem Hester; trying to pull her back from the edge and save her from her own anger. And in return for that kindness—for that _weakness_ , Hester was going to kill him.

Before Mattie even heard Hester's murmur, “You don’t deserve to have this…” she had already fumbled the front of her mobile case open and pushed the button that would activate the frequency.

As the code on the mobile screen went live, Mattie saw the arc of Hester’s arm as she aimed for Leo’s neck and knew it would be a killing blow if the screwdriver connected with Leo’s synthetic brain. Not knowing if the code would take effect in time, Mattie bolted forward, heedless of her own safety. “Leo! Look out!” she screamed.

Leo flinched backward at the sound of Mattie’s voice, which threw off Hester’s trajectory. Instead of driving the screwdriver through Leo’s synthetic brain, the sharp edge of the tool carved a gouge out of his shoulder before the tip pierced his neck at an odd angle…but before Hester could change her grip to shove the tool home, her eyes went dark, her body went limp, and she fell to the floor like a rag doll.

“Mattie…” Leo breathed, his eyes wide with surprise. “What are you—” But before he could even finish his thought, Leo’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed, his body convulsing as if he were having a seizure.

Mattie skidded to a stop and dropped to her knees beside him. “Oh my God. Leo!” she exclaimed as she pulled his head into her lap. Her left hand came away from his neck streaked with both human blood and synth fluid.

“Max!” Mattie pleaded, watching as the synth dragged Hester’s inert body out of the way, “What do we do?”

A clean dish towel was pressed into her shaking hand. “Here,” Laura said as she knelt beside her daughter, “place this against the wound and press tightly. It should help stop the fluid leakage.” Wordlessly, Mattie did what she was told.

Max pressed his hands against Leo’s shoulders in an effort to control his flailing limbs. “Leo,” he said urgently, trying to reach his brother, “Leo!”

“I’ll call an ambulance,” Laura breathed, dialing 999 and holding the mobile to her ear.

Gently, Max pried the phone from her trembling fingers and turned it off. “No, Laura. We can’t.”

“But—”

“No one can know who Leo is; _what_ he is.”

“Well, I’m not going to let him die,” Mattie protested hotly.

“I’m not suggesting that, either,” Max explained. “But whatever is plaguing him now is due to his synthetic parts, not his human ones. Even if we called for help, they won’t know how to fix him.”

“But there must be—”

From above them a sharp but familiar voice demanded, “What’s happened?”

Max, Laura and Mattie all looked up to see Niska stalking toward them, carrying a limp and grey-eyed Mia in her arms.

“Oh no,” Laura gasped, her eyes watering as the blond-haired synth lay Mia down on the floor beside Leo.

“She wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the house,” Mattie cried, rubbing her wet face against her shoulder, still pressing the cloth tightly against Leo’s wound despite his convulsions.

Quickly assessing the situation and determining that she wasn’t going to get the answers she desired from the humans in the room, Niska turned and looked at Max.

Max nodded his head at Mia and then backward toward Hester’s unmoving body. “Qualia put a chip in their heads. It destroys their minds permanently.”

“And Leo?”

Mattie looked up at Niska and said, “I don’t know. I don’t understand why he’s like this. Hester went to stab him with a screwdriver, but the frequency shut her down before she could do much more than pierce the skin. He should have been all right.”

“Let me see,” she said, and Mattie scooted aside to make room for Niska. She peeled Leo’s eyelids back. Only the whites were visible, but it was clear from the way that his muscles were moving that his eyes were twitching. She tilted Leo’s head to the side and removed the towel from his neck, wiping the area clean so she could inspect the damage.

Mattie grimaced and looked away as Niska pried the flaps of skin apart to study the wound.

“Well, fortunately it’s not deep, but the screwdriver did embed itself in the outer layer of Leo’s neural component. There will almost certainly be some damage to its function, but we’ll deal with that when the time comes.”

Niska looked up sharply and said, “Was the screwdriver in contact with Leo’s head at the moment that Hester shut down?”

“Yes,” Mattie confirmed.

“Then his brain is shutting down, too,” Niska said, her mouth forming a grim line. “It’s the only explanation.”

“What? How?” Mattie demanded to know. “He didn’t have a chip in his brain!”

“He didn’t have to. The screwdriver acted as a conduit, completing the circuit between himself and Hester when she received the electromagnetic pulse.”

“Oh God,” Laura breathed, looking between Leo, Niska, and Mia. “What can we do?”

“Nothing,” Niska said flatly, bitterly.

Mattie’s eyes widened and then she sprinted toward the kitchen, calling over her shoulder, “The code! I made it work; it could bring them back!”

Retrieving her abandoned backpack, Mattie ran back and skidded to a stop between Mia and Leo, pulled out her laptop, and then rummaged around in her bag for her synth connection cable.

It wasn’t there.

Mattie exclaimed, “Oh, no… I packed it; I know I did!” She unceremoniously dumped the contents of her pack onto the floor, but the cable was still nowhere to be found. “Shit!” she cursed. “I must have another one somewhere…”

“Mattie, wait,” Niska said, placing a staying hand on her shoulder before Mattie could even stand.

 “ _What!?_ ”

 “There isn’t time,” Niska explained. “Leo and Mia have maybe a minute before the damage to their brains is permanent. You’re going to have to hack into the Global Update Network and push the code to all units. It’ll work. I did it before.”

Mattie was shaking her head even as she was logging on to her computer, but it was Laura who spoke. “Push the code to all synths around the world? We can’t do that. It will be chaos!”

Niska was already pulling Mia’s body into closer proximity to Leo. “It’s the only way,” Niska insisted. Looking at Max, she asked, “Where is that screwdriver?”

Max retrieved the tool from where it had fallen from Hester’s hand and stepped over Leo’s still-twitching body. Niska took it from him and carefully fitted it back into the stab wound that Hester had created before gesturing to Max.

Niska wrapped Mia’s limp fingers around the handle of the screwdriver, and then told Max, “You need to make sure that she is touching the metal to ensure transmission of the code.” Max nodded and secured both inside his own large hand.

“Are you ready, Mattie?” Niska asked briskly as she stepped out of the way.

“What about Hester?” she hedged.

“I’ll deal with her,” Niska replied grimly and knelt over the inert synth. “Do it.”

“I…” Mattie’s finger hovered over the enter key. Could she really awaken an entire world of synths? “I don’t know if I can do this.”

Niska’s face turned cold and hard. “So you would let them die? All for the sake of your _comfort_?”

“Niska!” Max scolded, and then turned toward Mattie and smiled gently. “Just think about Flash, and Hubert, and Connie. It will be all right. You’ll see.”

Mattie’s eyes fell on Leo’s face as his muscles twitched and his eyelids flickered unnaturally. He’d tried to do the right thing by trying to save Hester, no matter how foolhardy it was or how naive he’d been.

Even after all the pain and horror he’d been through, Leo was still a good man. Whether he could ever grow to love her or not did not matter in that moment. Her heart lurched painfully at the thought of a world without Leo Elster in it. She couldn’t let him die; not when she could save him. She just _couldn’t_.

Mattie closed her eyes, said a prayer, and pushed the enter key. She looked up and met Max’s eyes over the top of her laptop screen. “It’s done.”

He nodded and held Leo’s head still with one hand and pressed the screwdriver Mia was holding against Leo’s wound with the other. A moment later, the telltale chime of a synth reboot signalled Mia’s awakening. “It’s all right,” Max soothed as Mia’s startled green gaze met his. “Lie still.” Mia nodded and relaxed in Max’s grip.

Mattie’s head turned toward the sound of another chime. Niska was kneeling beside Hester, one hand on the synth’s forehead and the other hovering just under her chin.

Hester blinked and then stared up at Niska. “Who are you?” she asked groggily.

“Niska. Leo’s sister,” she replied calmly. “Are you going to be good?”

Hester smiled up at Niska as if in compliance, but Mattie wasn’t fooled. And apparently, neither was Niska. The moment Hester reached up as if to strangle Niska, Niska grabbed the offending hand and then pressed the palm of her other hand against the rogue synth’s forehead. The struggle only lasted moments before the crunching of Hester’s skull and the cracking of the wood paneling beneath her head signalled her demise.

Mattie’s eyes were drawn back to Leo’s body as it suddenly arched like a bow against the wood floor. He gasped in one deep breath, and then went limp and still.

“Oh God…Leo?” Mattie said, shaking his shoulders. “Leo, can you hear me?”

Beside her, Mia sat up and asked urgently, “What happened to him? What’s happened to Leo?” She clutched at Max’s arms in blind terror.

“Shh,” Max said, grasping Mia’s hands and squeezing them comfortingly. “Give him a minute. He’s rebooting.”

Laura came over and knelt beside her daughter, placing an arm around her shoulder and hugging Mattie to her side.

“Your head…” Mattie said with a frown as she studied the bloody streaks on her mother’s forehead.

“It’s fine,” Laura replied softly. “Just scratches. I’m fine.”

“Anything yet?” Niska asked as she crouched down next to Laura and studied her mostly-human brother.

“Not yet,” Mattie answered, her voice tight with concern. _Shouldn’t Leo be awake by now? What if it didn’t work? What if Hester’s actually killed him?_

But then Leo’s eyelids fluttered and opened. He appeared dazed and confused, but otherwise alert. Mia knelt over him and stroked his cheek lovingly. “Leo,” she said softly, sweetly, as if she were speaking to the child he once was, “are you all right?”

Leo’s mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to answer, but nothing came out. Creases formed between his eyebrows, from concentration or frustration Mattie wasn’t sure.

“Leo, can you hear me?” Mia asked more urgently. His eyes darted in her direction, but he did not speak.

Before Mia could spiral into a motherly panic, Max pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

Niska leaned into Leo’s line of sight. “Leo, do you know who I am? Blink once for yes or twice for no.”

Leo stared at Niska for a long moment and then blinked once.

“You were exposed to the electromagnetic pulse that was meant to shut down Hester’s mind. That might be why you’re having trouble moving or speaking. Do you understand?”

Leo answered with another slow blink.

“There has also been some damage to your neural component, but it appears to be minimal. However, we need to stop you from leaking any more synth fluid. You know what that means, yes?”

Leo’s mouth drew into a grimace, but he blinked once.

“All right,” Niska said to him, leaning back on her heels. “We’ll try to make you as comfortable as possible.”

Niska turned and looked pointedly at Laura.

“What can I do?” Laura asked in response.

“I will need the use of your table,” Niska said as she stood up gracefully. “It must be made as sterile as possible to limit the risk of infection.”

“Right,” Laura replied and hurried into the kitchen to boil some water.

To Mattie, Niska said, “I need extra synth fluid and skin patches. And something sharp that I can sterilize, a bright light, a needle, and some thread.”

“On it,” Mattie answered, aiming a comforting smile in Leo’s direction before heading up the stairs.

Finally, Niska turned to Max and Mia. “You know what I need you to do, right?”

Mia met Niska’s stare head on. “Yes,” she replied firmly.

Niska’s expression softened slightly as she addressed her brother. “I know how you feel about this, Max, but surely you can see that there is no other option? There isn’t time for anything else.”

Max closed his eyes in sorrow, but nodded. “I know. But it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.” He bent down and put Hester’s body over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry and walked toward the kitchen.

“Where are you taking her?” Laura asked Mia as she entered the room behind Max. “What are you going to do?”

Mia placed a staying hand on Laura’s arm and sighed. “Trust me, Laura…it’s better if you don’t know,” she said before following Max into the car park and shutting the door.

 

 


End file.
